Having first read Fountainhead followed by Atlas Shrugged, We The Living came as a tragic jolt I was entirely unprepared for. Ayn Rand believed in the strength of man and his ideals. It was inevitable that Howard Roark and John Galt would survive and succeed because of who they were and who they refused to be. I expected a similar journey in We The Living and that was my undoing. “Andrei, did you like the opera?” “Not particularly.” “Andrei, do…
Ravished sticks to a more traditional regency romance format than some of the other novels by Amanda Quick. It is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. How can I tell? First clue – The hero, Viscount St. Justin, has a scarred face and a dishonourable past. He is unwelcome in polite society. Apart from a few close confidantes, he lives through life alone. Second clue – He is considered a brute by all. On numerous occasions, friends…
The Duke and I is a historical romance by Julia Quinn. The first of the immensely popular Bridgerton series. For me, it was a case of lost potential. The book started off full of promise, quickly dwindled in pace and ended without invoking any interest.…
I usually know from the start of a book, if soon enough, late into the hours after midnight, I am going to invariably end up quietly shedding happy tears, tucked into my cosy quilt. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think I cry particularly easily, except at the end of every good book. “Because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while.” But, Anne of Green Gable, by Lucy Montgomery, was not a book I was…
An overbearing old house with a haunting overshadowing past that looms over its inhabitants. Dorothy Eden uses this trait of gothic romance in a consummate setting for Death is a Red Rose. The book is whimsical and a breezy read even though the atmosphere inside the house is ominous and heavy with secrets and lies. The surest way to intrigue a suspense novel reader is to introduce the suspects. So, here goes – Arabia Bolton is a drama loving, senile, lonely old…
Insanity by Cameron Jace is one of the craziest books I have ever read, which is a lot to say considering the books I tend to read more often than not have wizards, vampires or private eye detectives in them. This is the first book in the Mad in Wonderland series. Cameron Jace re-imagines Alice in Wonderland characters in a ludicrous modern day setting with perfectly vague and frabjous (a word used in the book a LOT) results. “One of…
Lady in white is a romance novel where forbidden love meets arranged marriage. Thrown in is a ghost or two, for good measure. Denise Domning mixes royal political drama with some old fashioned romance and the result turns out to be a well-written book all in all. Bella is a rather plain-faced recent young window. Her mother was a conniving narcissistic siren in Queen Elizabeth’s court. Surprisingly, the Queen is portrayed as this petulant child-woman who likes to get her way.…
At the stroke of the midnight hour, the start of 31st of July, I stood in a parking lot waiting with hundreds of other people in a queue, in front of a brightly lit truck. The truck is called the Amazon Treasure Truck. And for this once, I can personally vouch for the treasure it carried within. I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I have read all the books, of course. And watched all the movies.…
He searches for her in a ball. With single-minded purpose he pursues her and she falls for him. She is Rosalind. An orphan child who was beaten to death as a little girl and cast away. The Sherbrook family have raised her as one of their own. But, even they can’t explain why the only thing the girl does remember of her life before the Sherbrook’s are the haunting words to a song. He is Nicholas Vail. Disowned by his father…
Not again.. A sassy rookie FBI agent who knows better than everyone? Not what I picked up to read.. That’s what I thought through the first chapter. It reminded me of Quantico (The Priyanka Chopra starring TV series on ABC). The Killing Hour review would not have made it to Writersbrew. However, a few chapters later things got decidedly better (or rather worse.. which is a great thing for a serial killer novel). At one point a live viper jumped…