As is usual with second volumes in a series, this one did not quite match up to Kate Quinn’s first, her MISTRESS OF ROME. What drove the first novel was the high-stakes […]
Before I talk about this stunning debut novel, I would like to give a shout-out to the narrator, Elizabeth Wiley. Our pleasure in the audiobook experience is so dependent on the narrator. […]
This volume is very similar to CHILDREN OF EARTH AND SKY, but whereas CHILDREN takes place in around 1478, i.e. around 25 years AFTER the fall of Constantinople (Sarantium), BRIGHTNESS takes place […]
Kate Quinn’s THE ALICE NETWORK is superb. Like many historical novels today, this one has a braided narrative, alternating between 1915 and 1947. Nineteen-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Sinclair is looking for her much-loved […]
In this re-telling of RAPUNZEL, we are in modern-day USA. It is summer and we are in a vacation spot in New England. Raphaela and her mother have an unusual tower of […]
Like AMERICAN WIFE, RODHAM filled me with alarm, not because of the story but because of the risks this author was taking. Whereas AMERICAN WIFE was a poke at George W. Bush, […]
I read this volume straight after Volume 1 (SAILING TO SARANTIUM) and found this to be equally as strong, if not better. The author’s descriptions are the best I’ve ever read. The […]
SAILING TO SARANTIUM is Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternative take on the Byzantium of the Emperor Justinian (482-565 CE.) In Kay’s novel this emperor is referred to as “Valerius II” and his wife […]
At the beginning of this volume, Kate Winters finally gives birth to her son Milo. The problem? Calliope wants to use this baby as her pawn in her machinations to torture and […]
Hmmm. This novel was not as successful as her first (THE GODDESS TEST.) Instead of spending time with Henry/Hades and Kate and seeing their relationship unfold, we are immediately yanked into an […]
In the upper peninsula of Michigan lies a mysterious estate, Eden Manor. Kate’s dying mother insists on her daughter driving off piste down a dirt road so that she can see it […]
Jodi Picoult’s fifteenth novel CHANGE OF HEART is leisurely, and perhaps overlong, but that didn’t matter to me, as the slow unspooling of tragedy, loss, courage and kindness kept me enthralled. Shay […]
Hmmm. I feel a bit mixed about this one. The positives for me were the link to Dante (one of my favorite authors) and how Jodi Picoult’s wonderful imagination created a Tenth […]
I found this book absolutely fascinating. Like many readers, I was drawn in by the first part of the book, by the first several chapters which deal with the linguistics issues of […]
It is always a pleasure to watch the havoc one person can create amongst people, especially people who are far too polite for their own good. In TIDELANDS, that person was James […]
You might think that after writing 15 novels about the Tudors and the Plantagenets, author Philippa Gregory would be spent. You would be wrong. TIDELANDS, set in Selsey Bill on the marshy […]
I love Jodi Picoult’s punning titles and I loved the way this novel began with the protagonist, Delia, six years old, being part of her father’s magic act: “The first time I […]
MY SISTER’S KEEPER, her eleventh novel, is the work that made Jodi Picoult famous. Jodi Picoult uses the formula that has worked so well in many other novels – American family in […]
