As in the last book, THE GRAVE’S A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, Flavia is growing up. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) this means that she is not quite the smarty-pants of yore, learning to […]
As so many readers do, I love Flavia, so was very happy to get hold of this volume. I heard it on audiobook, so my experiences may have been a little different […]
I don’t know when I first started reading the Kinsey Millhone series, but I was hooked by A IS FOR ALIBI, and have enjoyed the subsequent series enormously. It takes a lot […]
“Caroline.” Father stood in the doorway of his study holding The Baltimore Sun, as I arrived home. “I was right all along, not letting you stay at university. It is no place […]
Before I review Jodi Picoult’s sixth novel, I want to register a COMPLAINT with RECORDED BOOKS. It simply ISN’T right to cut the tape in such a way that there is NO […]
Like MERCY, Jodi Picoult’s fourth novel, THE PACT, her fifth, is about a vulnerable man who kills the woman he loves at her request. Unlike MERCY, Chris Harte in THE PACT has […]
I agree with most readers that MERCY is not Jodi Picoult at her best. Unlike some, I didn’t mind the Scottish clan stuff as I felt it helped to raise the stakes […]
“Caroline, please don’t exaggerate. There must be plenty of others who could perform this service for you.” “I don’t understand.” My throat shut, so I had to swallow to open it. “I […]
Perhaps we should get the meaning of the title over with first. For the bewildered reader who is wondering where Little Dribbling is, especially as it is not actually mentioned in this […]
Despite its jokey title and a few quips, this is NOT a funny book. So if you are looking for Brysonian humor, you will be disappointed. It is, however, very interesting. Bill […]
“That was quite something.” He grinned. I searched his face, looking for—a morsel of kindness? “Want my job?” I stared at the brown leather shoes Mother had got at a Church sale. […]
This is the final volume of the TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES series. Like Volume 2, which was a blend of the 12 dancing princesses fairy tale with Cinderella, this is a blend of […]
To say that Jessica Day George’s PRINCESS OF GLASS is yet another retelling of the Cinderella fairytale would be to mislead the reader, as neither Cinderella (named Eleanora/Ellen in this volume) nor […]
“Ifyoutakemetoyourfavoritecafe,” I remarked to the desk, “I’llorderthemostexpensivethingthere.” His silence was deadening. Unable to hold back any more, I lifted my face to his as a flood of giggles washed over me. He […]
I loved this retelling of the TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES. Jessica Day George adds some features that fill in the spaces and add logical sense to the gaps in the tale. We learn […]
While THE MISTS OF AVALON, the first volume in this series was set in Britain in the five hundreds CE, when the Romans left, the Anglo-Saxons arrived and Christianity was ascendant, PRIESTESS […]
This novel is three stories in one, and serves to bridge the time period between FOREST HOUSE which takes place from 86 to 96 CE, to 452 CE when Viviane takes over […]
“This is not your typical mystery; it’s for fans of thrilling action and historically-inspired events…Contra to the status quo of the genre, the men are the romantics – though in a deranged manner – and the women showcased are the core strength of the novel.”
“The author knows her characters very, very well; this shows in the consistent and very individual way they act. This is not a plot-driven story; it’s character-driven. In this book, the characters are the jam which holds everything together. The best example of this is Grace, the talented violinist, who, simply, jumps off the page. I loved her.”
“The author…adeptly summons the era in all its manners and details with her descriptive prose…Her omniscient, third-person narrator effectively flits through the heads of various characters, offering momentary glimpses of their inner lives.”
