July 2009 Roundup

Books Finished: 17

Favorite July Book:

Is it cheating to add a re-read of one of my favorite romance novels as my favorite book this month? Probably, but I do adore it, so here it is!

The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans

The Premise: Emma Brimley is a brand-new

schoolteacher, posing as a widow to escape her nasty family. Little did she know that the school requested a widow in order to instruct the girls in what to expect on their wedding night. Luckily, consummate rake Nicholas Chambers lives just next door - but he proposes a deal: one question answered for every piece of clothing removed if she will model for his next big painting.

I adore artist stories, and this one pretty much embodies why - she serves as his muse and his inspiration. There's a gorgeous scene where she 'becomes' the goddess he wishes to paint, and it's just lovely. *sighs happily* Plus there's plenty of funny moments as well.

An excerpt!

Convinced? Buy on Amazon or IndieBound

The non-re-read favorite: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Through the eyes of teenaged Mattie Gokey - a young woman with a talent for and love of words that her farming family can't understand - Jennifer Donnelly tells the story of the murder of Grace Brown, the story that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

This is much more than a story of a murder - although the death of Grace Brown has a great impact on Mattie, her story is about dreams dashed and dreams seized and about conflicting needs and desires. The need to be selfish so as not to lose oneself and the needs of one's family. It's a complicated bundle of events and emotions coupled with a love of stories and words that I relate to wholeheartedly. A great story!

Convinced? Buy on Amazon or IndieBound!

Author Encounters:

Michelle Moran contacted me about her upcoming YA release Cleopatra's Daughter (the website has great links including a book trailer). Given how much I enjoy Egyptian settings and YA historicals, I couldn't be more pleased. This is shaping up to be a good year for those (Esther Friesner is releasing Sphinx's Princess about Nefertiti in September as well!).

The best part? The FANTASTIC and creative contest Michelle has running to celebrate! She's releasing literary clues so treasure hunters can look for prizes in independent book stores scattered around the country. Sadly, there's none near me, but maybe you'll be luckier? Also - if you like archaeological stuff (I know I do), Michelle Moran's blog is a great collection of links to interesting news!

Like the sound of Cleopatra's Daughter? Buy on IndieBound or Amazon

Maya Slater left a great response to one of my comments about her new

novel The Private Diary of Mr Darcy over at Austenprose. Her novel gives an interesting look at the life of a Georgian gentleman and what a 'real' Mr. Darcy might have been like - and how he might have thought of himself. Intrigued? Buy on IndieBound or Amazon.

Books Read:

1. Corsair - Tim Severin

2. I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader - Kieran Scott

3. A Weaver Wedding - Allison Leigh

4. A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George

5. The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy - Maya Slater

6. The Domino Effect - Julie Elizabeth Leto

7. Cathy's Ring - Sean Stewart & Jordan Weisman

8. Murder at the National Gallery - Margaret Truman

9. The Hunter's Moon - O. R. Melling

10. Better Read than Dead - Victoria Laurie

11. The Education of Mrs. Brimley - Donna MacMeans

12. The Monster of Florence - Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi

13. The Seduction of a Duke - Donna MacMeans

14. A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly

15. High-Heeled Alibi - Sydney Ryan

16. Start Me Up - Victoria Dahl

17. Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev

Murder At the National Gallery - Margaret Truman

** - I picked this one up because I'm a big fan of the National Gallery, and of Caravaggio. I figured a murder mystery with an art basis would be a great distraction from the rigors of studying for the bar. But this novel just failed to impress me.

Senior curator of the National Gallery Luther Mason is a renowned Caravaggio expert - and he's mounting a world-class Caravaggio exhibit as the highlight of his illustrious career. And the exhibition only becomes more glamorous when Mason manages to unearth a long-lost Caravaggio masterpiece known as Grottesca. But a string of forgeries and double-crosses put the exhibition and the lives of several people at risk, so gallery owner Annabel Reed-Smith steps in to investigate.

Murder at the National Gallery is Book 13 in the Capitol Crimes series set in Washington, DC featuring sleuth Annabel Reed-Smith and her husband. I haven't read any of the others in the series, so I can't really comment on Annabel's growth or anything of that sort. It seemed to me, though, that Annabel was barely involved in the case for the most part. She was around a bit here and there (particularly the end), but she never seemed to do much investigating herself. It seemed much more like she just happened to be along for the ride.

I actually quite enjoyed the story of the forgeries of the Caravaggio and the double-crosses that involved the Mafia and unscrupulous black market buyers. I was even rooting for the swap to be pulled off - despite my actual outrage at people placing fake masterpieces in museums. There were snippets of art history lessons, some fun background about how the National Gallery works, and a decent protagonist. What there wasn't for 300 pages, was a murder.

I don't know about you, but when I see a title like Murder at the National Gallery - I think there's going to be a murder. And then that the main character is going to investigate said murder. I do not think there will first be three hundred of art intrigue (though that's cool) before anyone non-peripheral dies. So given the expectations (I think justifiable because of the title), it just moved way too slowly. And there was no real investigation.

The resolution was quite irritating - one of the main orchestrators of the whole mess was just despicable and got nothing remotely resembling comeuppance. Given the entire convoluted set-up, I just didn't think the ending was particularly satisfying. Maybe the whole thing just wasn't - not enough art, not enough inside DC workings, and not enough of our supposed protagonist to make me at all interested in reading the others in the series, despite my interest in DC settings.

I would give this one a miss - or at least go into it with very different expectations. It's not so much a murder-mystery as a story of a double-cross.

Some Caravaggio for you:

The Calling of St. Matthew

Medusa

Bacchus (this is the model thought to have been used in the fictional work Grottesca)

Interested in other opinions?

Jandy's Reading Room

Cathy's Ring - Sean Stewart & Jordan Weisman

*** - Clearly a must-read to see how it all wraps up if you've read this far. I thought things wrapped up in a fairly predictable manner, but not to the point where I was bored.

I received a free review copy of this book.

Okay, so in this installment - a bunch of goons are out to kill Cathy because she knows too much and keeps interfering. She decides to get out of town to protect her family and friends when they're threatened, too. But of course, the gang has no intention of letting her ride off without so much as a goodbye. So they hatch a plan to put Ancestor Lu out of business...

Cathy's Ring is definitely not a stand-alone. Some basic background is given in-text, but without some basic familiarity with the previous books Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key. This is the one where everything comes to a climax. It's certainly fast-paced and there's plenty of adventure to be had with assassins trying to kill Cathy right and left. Plus there's a beautiful poster included as part of the 'evidence'.

I still love Emma (there's a hilarious phone conversation between Cathy and Emma that runs something like this:

"Tell Pete he is a god. Tell him I will worship him with the fatted sheep, and the incense, and the gift certificates, for he is holy in my eyes and deserving of praise."

"Cathy says you're an idiot and could you please get a bloody light on in this cabin."

"I LOVE YOU, PETE! YOU ARE A GOLDEN GOD!"

"Also she wants you to make me hot chocolate."

How could anyone not love Emma?

I was less of a fan of the inevitable love triangle surrounding Cathy - but it seems to be The Thing To Do in YA fiction these days, so I can't say I was terribly surprised. I don't really think this was as strong as the other two in the series, but I still had fun. And after coming this far with Cathy and her trouble with immortals, it was impossible not to read on and see what became of her relationship with Victor.

The strongest part of the book is still Cathy's voice and her lovely drawings- and while there is less to puzzle out and less evidence to follow in this installment - Cathy is still as charmingly headstrong as ever.

Interested in other opinions?

Books by Their Cover

Everything To Do With Books

The Domino Effect - Julie Elizabeth Leto

*** - Very hot and I even bought the premise. But the ending just didn't work for me, which is always a problem with asssassination plotlines.

Domino Black was recruited into the super-secret agency known as The Shadow when she was just a teen. Her latest mission is to investigate sexy Chicago club owner Luke Brasco to determine who in his club is selling government secrets to terrorists. But Domino is usually just an assassin, she has no experience undercover - and she certainly doesn't know what to do when she finds herself falling for her target.

This certainly deserved the appellation 'extreme' - the assassin plotline, the very hot sex. This was a lot of escapist fun. The spy story was intriguing, and the scene in the cab in the beginning was very cool. Given the extreme circumstances and the chemistry smoldering between the main characters, I even bought them falling in love so quickly. My favorite scene was when the two of them went to the ballpark to watch a baseball game - it was just so quintessentially normal fun.

The issue I had was the resolution. Assassin plots in particular are very difficult - assassin characters tend to be such loners (not to mention a bit screwed up). It's hard to convincingly write a story that allows them to back out of that life and begin a more normal existence. And while the author certainly gave it a try here, it just didn't really work for me. It was too sudden, and I didn't buy Luke's motivation to take on such a huge responsibility on such short notice.

The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy - Maya Slater

** 1/2 - A well-researched account of the life of a Georgian gentleman, but there just didn't seem to be enough Elizabeth in it for me to really connect the main character to Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Plus, it just seemed a bit... flat.

I received a free review copy through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

At a sale of the contents of one of England's great houses, a diary was found hidden away in the secret drawer of an old writing desk. Upon closer examination, it was clear that this was the diary of the real-life Mr. Darcy upon whose romance Jane Austen based her Pride and Prejudice. The diary reveals his daily life fencing, boxing, and occasional wenching; his time spent with friends (including the notorious Lord Byron); and, of course, his rocky romance with Elizabeth Bennet.

I actually liked the premise a lot. It was interesting to see what Regency-era men got up to in their daily lives (much like the PBS special Regency House Party). There was a lot of sports, some shopping, some business, and a lot of hanging out with friends. This and Darcy's protective instincts toward his sister Georgiana was quite charming. I also liked the way he dealt with Elizabeth's statements to him upon his first disastrous proposal.

I also thought the encounters with Byron were interesting. He really was a fascinating character. It was nice that the author addressed this relatively uncharacteristic friendship with Darcy by making them all old school-friends. But some of Darcy's behavior, while certainly realistic for a Georgian-era man, didn't seem consistent with my conception of the very honorable Fitzwilliam Darcy. To me, Darcy seemed more the type to have kept a mistress before his relationship with Lizzie rather than one to indulge in casual encounters.

Nor am I sure that I liked the motivation the author gives Darcy for separating Bingley from Jane Bennet - it made more sense to me when he simply believed that she was indifferent. Sadly it seemed that there was more discussion of Bingley and Jane's story and romance than there was about Darcy and Elizabeth.

Georgiana also didn't seem quite 'in character'. In the book, she was described as more of a docile girl in awe of her older brother. Here her mood swings between exuberance and more subdued seemed a bit odd.

Other than that, I'm just not sure I 'bought' it. The entire idea of a diary can be quite difficult to make masculine. Here that is partly accomplished by very short, not particularly detailed entries. But there seems to be quite an emphasis on the colors of people's clothing which did not seem particularly manly to me at all. The main issue I had with this, though, was that it did not re-tell many scenes from Austen's original. Because of that, we actually only see very little of Darcy interacting with Elizabeth. I think a bit more detail, including actively re-telling certain key scenes would have tied this more securely to Austen's novel.

In the ARC that I received, the note explaining the premise that Austen based her novel on the actual story of a romance was at the very end - it would have been more effective as a set-up in the beginning of the book.

So my final verdict? It was an interesting read, and I could certainly tell that a lot of research went into this novel - the key is to keep in mind that this is supposed to be the story of the real man that Mr. Darcy was later based on. As that, it works. But I think it's less successful as a re-telling of Austen's novel itself.

Interested in others?

Author Guestpost on Jane Austen in Vermont

Austenprose and author interview

Booklust

A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George

*** 1/2 - This is the first in Elizabeth George's acclaimed Inspector Lynley mysteries. Now that I've read several of the series, I think I've put my finger on why they always seem to be hovering just above average for me. I enjoy her writing and her plotting - but all of her stories deal with situations that make me very uncomfortable.

A savage murder has been committed in the bucolic English countryside. Fat, unhappy Roberta Teys is found near the body of her father, clutching a bloody axe, and all she will say is "I did it, and I'm not sorry." Scotland Yard's golden boy Detective Inspector Lynley (also the 8th Earl of Asherton) is sent to investigate along with scruffy, scrappy and perpetually angry Barbara Havers - who is being given one last chance to play nicely with a partner before being relegated to a position on the beat.

This is where Lynley and Havers first meet, and here more than in any of the others that I've read, the differences between their situations are absolutely glaring. Everything about Lynley seems to go right - his title, his career, and even his tragically doomed love affair only seems to lend him more empathy and intuition. He is so perfect that it's unsurprising that Havers views him with instant hostility. But she goes overboard to the point where I wondered why she was so desperate to sabotage everything she had worked for so hard.

As usual, the main thing in A Great Deliverance isn't really the case that Lynley and Havers are working on. Instead the focus is on the characterization of the investigating team and their relationship. And here, it's pretty frustrating. If I had come to this novel first (you know, that pesky thing called reading in order), and I hadn't seen some of the excellent BBC productions based on these novels, I'm not sure I would have come back to George.

This is even more true because of the issues George addresses within the mystery. There's very little I can say about what disturbed me here without spoiling the mystery, so I won't go into any detail. But these novels tend to make me quite uncomfortable - there's always an undercurrent of the sordid. I suppose I shouldn't expect any different from a novel about crime and the nastier darker sides of humanity that lead to murder, but there's something about George's writing that really drives home that this sort of thing is real. And that upsets me.

If you want a CSI, a Law & Order, or a Closer in book form, Elizabeth George's novels aren't the way to go. They're gritty and seedy - and if that's more your mystery/thriller style, I'd say go for it.

Book 3: Well-Schooled in Murder

Book 5: For the Sake of Elena

Interested in other opinions?

A Girl Walks into a Bookstore

Of Books and Bicycles

Smithereens

I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader - Kieran Scott

**** - A quick read with a likeable main character and a lot of really funny moments. I was actually surprised as the author also writes the Private series which really wasn't my thing. The series are nothing alike - Non-Blonde Cheerleader is much lighter.

Annisa Gobrowski feels like she just landed on another planet. When she shows up for her first day at her new high school in Florida, she's the only non-blonde in sight. Add that to a killer first day - in which she's labeled a brainiac back-stabbing klutz who also managed to break the head cheerleader's nose - and things are off to a very rocky start. Especially since all Annisa wants is to be a part of the award-winning cheerleading team...

I'm not a cheerleader. Nor did I ever want to be. I was pretty much the opposite of all cheerleaders. But I liked I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader a ton. I liked the characters - hunky Daniel Healy, Goth girl Bethany (who I kept picturing as Abby from NCIS), and smart-mouthed Annisa. I loved the way her voice came across - like when she referred to a certain ice cream flavor as "happiness in a carton". She's just the right mixture of goofy, smart, and boy-struck to make her believable and someone I would want to be friends with. That's always a good sign.

Non-Blonde Cheerleader was a lot of fast-paced fluffy fun. I admired Annisa for standing up to the cheerleading squad even when they have it out for her, and I was really impressed that the novel showed actual consequences to not studying for your Calculus tests (seriously, I hate books where people do all kinds of other stuff and never have to study for anything...). There was a lot of training and 'sports' stuff, romantic entanglements, and a prank war... All of the things my high school life was nothing like - but that are awfully fun to read about.

I'll be looking for the sequels!

Interested in other opinions?

Royal Reads (plus an interview)

Not Acting My Age

Corsair - Tim Severin

*** - With a name like Corsair and the cover image, I was expecting there to be more nautical adventure. The premise was interesting, but when it comes right down to it, I thought the characterization was pretty shallow.

In 1677, Hector Lynch is abducted from a small Irish village by Barbary pirates. He is taken back to the Barbary Coast where he is soon sold as a slave at auction. But intelligent young Hector is irrepressible - and lucky in his friends, including the Miskito Indian Dan. He soon becomes indispensable to his seafaring master Turgut Reis. After converting to Islam, the ship Hector is on is captured - and Hector once again enters a life of servitude onboard a French galley.

The novel reads more like an adventure novel than the historicals I usually read - something more along the lines of The Rosetta Key or maybe Louis L'Amour's The Walking Drum. But despite the more adventurous tone, there was remarkably little time spent in actual adventures. I just didn't ever feel like Hector was in peril.

This pretty much tracks with the rest of the novel. Although Hector goes through some difficult experiences - including the loss of his sister which is meant to drive the novel - there is never much emotional depth in the narrative. The entire story seems relatively superficial, and that combined with the lack of perilous action scenes means that Corsair isn't a very engrossing read. It wasn't boring, but it didn't have me reaching for it after I had put it down, either.

I liked the unusual setting - I haven't read much about the Barbary Coast, especially not during that period. There was some very interesting history (both events and different customs) in this novel, but I'm not sure I'll be reading the others in the series.

Interview with the Author

Interested in other opinions?

Libri Touches

Dark Wolf's Fantasy

The Book Bag

A Weaver Wedding - Allison Leigh

*** 1/2 - I was apprehensive when I saw that this was the infamous 'secret baby' plotline. But I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. There was a very nice suspense plotline involved that nonetheless didn't overshadow the emotional connection. I'd read more in this series.

I received this book free for review from TellHarlequin.com.

Tara Browning owns a quiet shop in the little town of Weaver, Wyoming. But although she's lived in the town for years, she does very little mingling with the others in Weaver. But that hasn't stopped horse breeder (and protective agent) Axel Clay from noticing her. When he is assigned to protect her from a possible hit, he has no problem playing the doting lover. But he does have difficulties forgetting the wild weekend they spent with one another a few months before. And Tara is having trouble hiding her pregnancy from him.

The prologue - where Axel and Tara meet and share an amazing and wild weekend - is really great. The sexual tension was full of sizzle, and there wasn't even anything explicit. That tension continued through much of the book, though I personally found it rather frustrating that the two of them didn't end up in a few more compromising positions while he was forced to live in Tara's house.

The suspense subplot was handled nicely - it didn't overwhelm the romance blossoming between Axel and Tara, but it wasn't just a pretext to throw the two of them back together either. Tara has some definite issues that are raised by Axel's career and by his family's close relationship. It was nice to see those explored as well. Plus, Tara never did anything Too Stupid To Live, but actually listened to those trying to protect her - a definite positive factor.

While I didn't like Axel's high-handedness towards the end of the novel, I enjoyed their relationship overall. There's a nice mixture of sexual attraction and deeper caring. While I'm still not a fan of the entire 'secret baby' plotline, that was actually a relatively minor aspect of this story - and I found myself actually liking A Weaver Wedding despite myself.

Interested in other opinions?

Love Romance Passion

The Romance Reader

Tracy's Place

The Harlequin/Silhouette Challenge

The Family He Wanted - Karen Sandler

*** - Special Edition really isn't high on my list of Harlequin lines. I generally steer more towards Blaze, Intrigue, and Historicals. But when a Harlequin panel offered two Special Edition in exchange for filling out a survey, I decided to give it a try despite the baby plot. It's still not going to be a line I pick up regularly, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

I received this book free for review from TellHarlequin.com.

Jana McPartland is pregnant - the father ran out on her, and now she must make the difficult choice of whether to give the baby up for adoption. While she makes up her mind, she goes to work for her childhood crush and idol, thriller author Sam Harrison. Sam was a foster child growing up, and he has a definite fear of commitment - one that frightens him so much that he is reluctant to explore the attraction between him and Jana.

I'm not a fan of the baby plotline. I'm just not at a point in my life where pregnancy and babies really work for me. In addition to that, I thought there was a bit much on the drama side (at least where Sam was concerned). I understand that Sam was reluctant to trust anyone and that he was afraid of commitment, but I thought the resolution needed to take longer - trust doesn't crop up overnight. His treatment of Jana because of his fear of commitment was neither particularly romantic - and her putting up with it made me lose a lot of respect for Jana.

The Family He Wanted was no more than an average read for me. I enjoyed the parts set at the ranch, but commitment-phobia isn't something I deal with particularly well. While I think everyone's motivations were believable and realistic, I don't particularly enjoy reading about people settling for less than a whole-hearted 'I love you' in a romance novel.

Interested in other opinions?

You Gotta Read Reviews

Cathy's Key - Sean Stewart & Jordan Weisman

*** - This was a fun sequel to Cathy's Book. There were interesting new characters introduced, and there were some truly hilarious hijinks - FondueGrrl, anyone? But I thought the mystery story line was weaker in this volume.

I received a free review copy of this book.

Cathy only recently discovered that her boyfriend (and a number of others) is immortal - now she's attempting to fend off Victor's immortal father who also has his sights set on her romantically (talk about creepy). When a stint on a Greyhound leads to her diary (Cathy's Book) and her identity being stolen, Cathy has even more problems than before.

Victor is absent for most of the book because he's being held hostage to work on a formula to make everyone immortal. And since he's not around, his and Cathy's relationship doesn't get much of a chance to grow, which is a bit disappointing. Cathy's relationship with her mother is still difficult (Cathy's inability to hold down any minimum-wage job doesn't help matters), but Cathy does try to make things better.

The drawings are still lovely in this volume, especially the ones on 'parchment' from the Ponce de Leon letter. And there are some really funny scenes here - I loved Cathy's work at the fondue restaurant. There is just so much that can go hilariously wrong when you combine Cathy's klutziness with boiling cheese and all the craziness of food service jobs.

The mystery here seemed less put together. I had no trouble figuring out one of the bigger mysteries, and the others were also fairly well telegraphed. Also, I wasn't sure how well the 'extras' and interactive elements fit in this case. This was still a fun read, and I'm definitely interested in seeing how it all wraps up.

Check out the website http://www.cathyskey.com/

Interested in other opinions?

Teen Reads

Books By Their Cover

Em's Bookshelf

The Zero Game - Brad Meltzer

*** - Fast-paced and set in the political world of Congress, The Zero Game was an engrossing political thriller - plenty of danger lurking and narrow escapes. Fun for the genre, but it's not one of my favorites.

Two political staffers in Washington, D.C. are caught up in a mysterious secret game - a theoretically harmless bet on peripheral issues going through Congress. The Zero Game ends up causing the death of one of Harris Sandler's good friends, so Harris goes into hiding. Soon he and a Congressional page find themselves on the run from a dangerous assassin as they try to discover the secret behind the game that people are willing to kill for.

The Zero Game was pretty much what you would expect from a political thriller. It was fast-paced and engrossing - you never had to wait too long for the next danger to pop up around the corner. There was quite a bit of running around the Capitol trying to escape from bad guys. I kind of hoped the characters would venture a little farther afield. I miss living in DC, and it would have been nice to spend some time revisiting familiar areas.

The shifting points of view had its good points and bad. It certainly adds to some of the surprise, but it also was a bit disconcerting to the reader. I don't like getting attached to one narrator only to switch to someone else. I also just didn't get much out of the sections from the killer's point of view. They didn't add anything much to the story - not even a sense of impending danger that the protagonists were unaware of. To add to that, I could have used a bit more in the way of contribution from the page. She was an interesting character, and I would have liked to see more from her.

I enjoyed the ultimate mystery and how it was set up, and the show-down wasn't disappointing. But, as with most of these types of thrillers, there was nothing about the mystery that was particularly memorable.

The Indifferent Stars Above - Daniel James Brown

**** - I don't usually read much non-fiction. The Indifferent Stars Above is a prime example of why I should branch out more - but also of why I prefer historical novels.

I received a free review copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

When I requested The Indifferent Stars Above from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program, I thought it was a historical novel about the Donner Party's ill-fated trip toward California, not a non-fiction historical account. This is entirely due to my own carelessness in reading the description - and I have to admit, I'm glad I did.

I don't usually read non-fiction. In non-fiction works, the very things that bring history to life for me, that fascinate me - the emotions, the motivations of the people involved - tend to be frowned upon. These innermost workings of human beings are largely unknowable - or unsupportable by evidence - and therefore avoided in serious non-fiction. But those are what make up the essence of a story and save it from becoming dry recitations of facts - for me at least. I'm emotionally driven, and I'm looking for emotional resonance in my histories.

The Indifferent Stars Above really made me re-think my aversion to non-fiction. Daniel James Brown ties the story of his ancestor to a frame story of his own research journey along the route they took. His discussion of the wagon train's journey is interesting and insightful - I found his discussions of sexual attitudes, hypo- and hyperthermia and similar well-placed and intriguing. I especially enjoyed his discussions of psychological effects of the cold and hunger - Brown comes very close to discussing the kind of motivations that I crave in my understanding of history. I certainly learned a great deal that I never knew about the Donner Party and others like them who were on the trail West.

But the book also reinforced my preference for historical fiction over non-fiction. Once the party was stranded by the lake and during the brutal trek of some members toward rescue, I really would have preferred to hear the story with the emotion and the motivations of the characters. In particular what happened at the lake before the last rescue party arrived - the part of the story involving Keseberg - was left unclear. There's simply not enough evidence to conclusively claim that Keseberg killed and ate some of his fellow survivors. But I could have used some speculation - it just would have made the story more satisfying for me. I just like to know what happened!

I certainly know much more about the Donner party than I did before (which was very little), but I'd love to know if someone knows of a good historical novel about the incident!

Interested in learning more about the Donner Party?

Book Trailer

PBS site for The American Experience: The Donner Party

Interested in other opinions about the book?

Bookworm's Dinner

The Rake's Unconventional Mistress - Juliet Landon

*** - I'm a fan of bluestocking heroines who are independent-minded. But this one fell pretty flat for me. I don't care for 'mistress' love stories. I don't mind women with experience and such, but to me, the mistress angle often makes me feel as if the heroine is being used. Also, currently I have no patience for commitment-phobes.

Letitia Boyce is certainly unconventional. Rather than follow her mother's wishes and join the husband-hunt, Letty decides to open an equally unconventional seminary for well-born young ladies that actually teaches them practical skills and how to hold interesting conversation. The last thing she wants to get involved with is her younger sisters' current escort Lord Seton Rayne.

But Seton isn't used to being ignored, and he finds himself drawn more and more to the intelligent beauty. And he spends more and more time making excuses to spend more time with her.

So - the good: I really liked Letty. She's very clever, a talented writer, and wants much more than to be some man's arm-candy. But just because she doesn't want to be stuck in a very limiting gender role doesn't mean she's not interested in experiencing the joys of courtship and a relationship (emotional and physical) with a man. And I can identify whole-heartedly with that. Letty was fantastic.

But - I couldn't really get behind the whole looking to shock people by becoming Seton's mistress, which will somehow enhance her school's reputation? I'm just not sure I buy it, for starters. Would people really be ok with sending their daughters to be raised by a woman who is openly a nobleman's mistress? Also, as I mentioned above, I don't much care for mistress stories. And somehow, Seton never really worked for me.

There's nothing I can point to particularly that was bad about this story. But despite the great heroine, I just wasn't drawn into the story. It was a decent way to spend an afternoon, but nothing that I found particularly memorable.

The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns - Elizabeth Leiknes

**** - The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns is a quirky clever addition to the ever-growing genre of paranormal chicklit. Though short, the novel is decidedly original and interesting. I liked the witty voice and the charming characters, and especially the unconventional romantic angle. Very cool - I'm looking forward to more from Elizabeth Leiknes.

I received a free copy of this book for review.

When Lucy Burns was 11, she bound herself 'To Whom It May Concern' in exchange for her sister's life. Years later, the Devil comes to collect - and to employ Lucy as a Facilitator - one who brings souls to one of the portals to Hell. But one of the drawbacks of working for Satan is that she cannot have any contact with her family - or have a boyfriend. So when she is set up with charming blind creative writing teacher Luke Marshall, Lucy must find a way out of her contract with the help of her easy-listening idol Teddy Nightengale.

Despite the dark theme, Elizabeth Leiknes manages to turn her story into a quirky funny story of hope and redemption. Although she works for the Devil, you can't help but root for Lucy. After all, she is responsible for sending child molesters, hate group members, and killers to Hell. And she has the same types of insecurities and issues as anybody else - remembered sins of childhood, fear of rejection, and a deep-seated desire to do what is right. She's a very likeable character; her relationship with Finn is particularly touching.

To make her even more charming, Lucy has utterly hilarious moments. The incident with the kitchenware party at her house had me giggling hysterically, as did her meetings with Luke. I enjoyed watching Lucy struggle to break free of the Devil (who reminded me a lot of Bedazzled - less evil than mischievous). But I did think the first two steps came to her just a bit too easily - particularly the number of sinners aspect.

Ultimately, I thought this was a clever read with the right mixture of escapism and a story about redemption. I would have preferred The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns to be a bit longer, I was looking forward to reading more about Luke and her. But it was a fun read, and one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to someone looking for a clever read with plenty of references to folklore and literature.

Read the first chapter!

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