133. The Fallen Kings Number 32

By: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Rated 5 Stars

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

1918: German troops flood back from the Russian front for an all-out assault in France. The under-strength British reel back; the spectre of defeat haunts the land. In the front line, Bertie struggles to bring out his battered battalion; at home Jessie, carrying his child, faces her family's censure. Thomas follows the Romanovs to Ekaterinburg as Russia descends into bloody civil war. Emma drives an ambulance in the FANY, and Jack is shot down. In the last, terrifying year of the war, the Morlands are more than ever in the thick of it, winning through by courage

This is the last book in the series that is available right now. I think the next one, called The Dancing Years is scheduled to come out in May 2010. Naturally this book ended with a cliff hanger *sigh*

Since this book wraps up WWI it looks like a good place to write down some of my random thoughts about the last few books.

Ned - I am very conflicted about how I feel about him. He was a decent guy and I want him to have survived and had some post war happiness. OTOH, I also want Jesse and Bertie to have their hard earned HEA. Can the author figure out how to make both happen?

Maud - her death was just too convenient. In spite of her being such a dull character I thought the author killed her off in rather a cold blooded way. I would have rather seen the divorce happen a year or so earlier so she could have faded off into the sunset with Manvers. No one should die just because the are a boring person and a cold fish.

Thomas and his whole Russian adventure. YAWN. I skimmed those bits. The story was already too busy without injecting that into it. Maybe it ought to have it's own book. Also the author has painted herself into a corner with his story line. I wonder how she will work it all out?

Emma - I went looking on the web to see what the FANY uniforms looked liked and was rewarded with a picture of Emma's fur lined coat and Benson! Picture of WW! era FANY'S It's my guess that she will end up happily married to Knoydart in the next book. He's been crazy about her for years.

Speaking of someone whose been mooning over a woman for years, well that's Sir Freddie Copthal. I gradually came to the conclusion that he has been in love with Violet since forever. He reminds me very much of Freddie Standon in Georgette Heyer's book Cotillion. On the surface a lovable and amiable fool that conceals sharp intelligence and competence.

Holkham - now here's a guy I wouldn't mind CHE cold bloodedly doing away with in order to clear the way for his betters.

Jesse's experiences with the VAD are reminiscent of the same sort of experiences Vera Brittain wrote about in her book A Testament of Youth.

Polly - a silly little twit who needs to get busy and grow up. I hope that Lennie doesn't end up with her. He deserves so much better.

As to the Oliver/Kit speculation - Hmmmmmm. I personally didn't pick up on it but who knows.

132. The Time of my Life

Rated 5 stars

Product Description

In a career spanning more than thirty years, Patrick Swayze has made a name for himself on the stage, the screen, and television. Known for his versatility, passion and fearlessness, he's become one of our most beloved actors.But in February 2008, Patrick announced he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Always a fighter, he refused to let the disease bring him to his knees, and his bravery has inspired both his legion of fans and cancer patients everywhere. Yet this memoir, written with wisdom and heart, recounts much more than his bout with cancer. In vivid detail, Patrick describes his Texas upbringing, his personal struggles, his rise to fame with North and South, his commercial breakthroughs in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and the soul mate who's stood by his side through it all: his wife, writer and director Lisa Niemi.
A behind-the-scenes look at a Hollywood life and a remarkable love, this memoir is both entertainment and inspiration. Patrick and Lisa's marriage is a journey of two lives intertwined and lived as one--throughout their years in Hollywood and at home on their working ranch outside Los Angeles, and culminating in the hope and wisdom they've imparted to all who know them. This book will open the door for families, individuals, and husbands and wives to grow, bond and discover entirely new levels of love and sharing, proving that life shouldn't be lived as a series of endings, but rather as the beginning of greater strength and love.

131. Bed of Roses

By: Nora Roberts
Rated 4 Stars
From Library

 This was a quick read.  Light, fluffy and a fun read.  I am so glad Roberts has gone back to straight, traditional, formulaic romance.  At least for this series.  I needed a nice steamy little  book right now.

Publisher Summary

As little girls MacKensie, Emma, Laurel, and Parker spent hours acting out their perfect make believe "I do" moments. Years later their fantasies become reality when they start their own wedding planning company to make every woman's dream day come true. With perfect flowers, delicious desserts, and joyful moments captured on film, Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet shares each woman's emotionally magical journey to romance.

In Bed of Roses, florist Emma Grant is finding career success with her friends at Vows wedding planning company, and her love life appears to be thriving. Though men swarm around her, she still hasn't found Mr. Right. And the last place she's looking is right under her nose.

But that's just where Jack Cooke is. He's so close to the women of Vows that he's practically family, but the architect has begun to admit to himself that his feelings for Emma have developed into much more than friendship. When Emma returns his passion-kiss for blistering kiss-they must trust in their history...and in their hearts.

130. Robinson Crusoe

Rated 4.5 Stars
Unabridged Audio Book
13.3 hours long
From libravox

I can't remember if I already read this book or not.  If I did it must have been in a greatly abridged version.  Anyway it mostly felt first time to me.  It did yet preachy and prosy sometimes but overall it was a great story.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

One of the first novels ever written, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), the classic adventure story of a man marooned on an island for nearly 30 years, is part of our culture. From Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960) to the recent movie Castaway, the elemental situation of the person suddenly alone, who must make a life in a dangerous environment, continues to enthrall all ages.

The story begins with the universal quest: the young man in Britain, torn between his safe home and his hunger for adventure, breaks away from his loving father and sails away into the unknown. After a series of harrowing escapes, he's shipwrecked on a desert island. His lively first-person account shows how his intelligence and education help him survive for many years, and how he uses technology, including guns and tools salvaged from the ship. He sets up home, reads the Bible, finds a parrot as a pet, and even devises a calendar to keep track of time. Then one day he finds a human footprint: "Was it someone who could save me and take me back to civilization? Or was it a savage who landed here?" When some "savages" arrive in several canoes, he uses his guns to get rid of them, and he rescues one of their captives, a handsome fellow with very dark skin. Delighted to have a companion at last, Crusoe names the newcomer Friday (since Crusoe found him on Friday). Crusoe teaches "my man Friday" to speak English, fire a gun, carve a canoe, and clothe his nakedness, and they live happily together. Later they rescue a white man and Friday's father from a group of "savages," and, eventually, they all return to their homes.

129. Breaking the Bank

By Yona Zeldis McDonough

Rated:  2 Stars

Once again I find myself not liking a book that others loved.  I went to Amazon and checked the reviews and its rated 4 1/2 stars.  I need to steer completely away from books with paranormal themes I guess.  But its really wasn't the paranormal aspect of it that I disliked so much but the characters I couldn't buy into.

The story goes that the main character, a single Mother whose husband walked out on her goes to an ATM to make a withdrawal and it starts spitting out more cash than she asked for without debiting her account along  instructions to use it well.

At first, it seems to be everything she'd wished for—her financial burden is lifted, her daughter's mood lightens and Mia even begins to fall in love—but not all of the changes brought about are for the better. Unfortunately, character development is nonexistent, the big payoff (such as it was were) is a letdown, and the plot is too thin to support a checking of disbelief or the book's length.

128. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously - DNF

By Jullie Powell
Rated: DNF
From:  Library, Thank Goodness

I heard great things about the movie that was based on this book.  I haven't seen it myself but I sure hope it is better than this book.

This book was really not about cooking, or Julia Child or even about blogging.  This was one great long whiney, profane rant with a lot of boring libral politics thrown in.  (And I'm a liberal for heavens sake and still could not stomach it.)

This person could not write.  Any creativity the book managed to come up with the author leached off of her husband.  BLECH!

127. My Cousin Caroline

By Rebecca Ann Collins
Rated 3 Stars
From:  Library

There was nothing new in this book.  It was a rehash from the first five.  I was very disappointed in it.

PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:

In this installment of The Pemberley Chronicles series, Mr. Darcy's cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth's cousin Caroline Gardiner take center stage.
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Caroline develops from a pretty young girl into a woman of intelligence and passion, embodying some of Austen's own values. Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, and the Wickhams all move through the story as Caroline falls in love, marries, and raises her children. Caroline rejects the role of a compliant Victorian wife and mother, instead becoming a spirited and outspoken advocate of reformist causes in spite of the danger of scandal.
Caroline's advocacy of reform, undaunted by criticism, demonstrates strength in a time when a woman's role was severely restricted.

126. The Foreign Field #31

By Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

It's a measure of how badly I have been hooked on this ongoing literary soap opera that I purchased this book and the one following from amazon uk.  I almost never do that but in this case I just could not wait the year or so until they were available over here.  {sigh}

Product Description
It's 1917 and the Allies are determined to finally defeat a weakened Germany - everything is building up to the summer's Big Push. Germany strikes back with U-boat attacks to starve England out, giant aeroplanes to bomb London, and the cunning withdrawal to the Hindenberg Line. Every Briton must do his bit, and the Morlands are involved at every stage: fighting and nursing in France, stoically surviving at home - and finding love where they can along the way. Continuing the great saga of the Morland dynasty, The Foreign Field carries its members into a new set of conflicts and tests their courage to the limit.

125. The Measure of Days, #30

Rated 4.5 Stars

Product Description

1916. England is at war, and the Morland family is in the thick of it, with two men already in France and three more soon to go. Tragedy strikes Morland Place when Jessie's husband Ned is reported missing on the Western Front. His father launches a desperate bid to find him, but the family fear the worst. Jessie, in mourning and frustrated by her job as an auxiliary nurse, goes to London to work in a military hospital. There she is reunited with her old friend Oliver, posted to the capital under the RAMC. Also in London is Violet, whose affair with the brilliant artist Octavian Laidislaw is about to erupt in scandal ...The Measure of Days paints a portrait of a family, and a nation, at war, at a pivotal point in history. With the onset of conscription, no one is left unaffected. Every man must hold himself in readiness; and every woman knows that when she says goodbye, it might be for the last time.

124. The Burning Roses, #29

By Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated 4.5 Stars
Format:  Book

This is book 29 in The Morland Dynasty Series.  It seems I forgot to finish the journal entry for this book at the time I first read it.  At the time I had started to get burn out on this series at book 11 so I skipped ahead to be beginning of WWI, a period which I am particularly fascinated with.

Product Description

In 1915 the first euphoria of the war has worn off, but the nation is more determined than ever to win. When Ned is sent to the Front ahead of his battalion, Jessie, already involved in various charity works, feels the need to do more and becomes an auxiliary nurse. But life on the wards is harder than she expects. Meanwhile, Helen and Jack settle in a home of their own at last, and Helen takes on a surprise war role of her own. And for Violet in London, a chance meeting with talented young artist threatens to destroy her calm and ordered life. With stalemate on the Eastern Front, everything now hangs on the new September offensive on the Western Front, the Battle of Loos. Both Ned and Bertie will be leading their men over the top, leaving the rest of the family to pray for their safe return.

123. The White Road, #28

Rated 4.5 Stars
From:Amazon

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

August 1914. In England, the outbreak of war is greeted with euphoria. The nation is inflamed with a desire to "teach Germany a lesson," and thousands flock to volunteer, believing the war will end by Christmas. Teddy Morland is proud to see his nephews, Jack and Ned, in the forefront. Soon, the family seat, Morland Place—untouched by war since Cromwell’s time—begins to feel the breath of war as its horses are requisitioned and its servants volunteer; then brutal reality sobers national high spirits as the death toll in France rises. When Christmas finally comes, the war is far from over, and nine in ten of the men who marched, singing, down the road to Mons have fallen. The White Road continues the saga of the Morland dynasty, ushering its members into conflicts that will alter their lives forever.

122. The Restless Sea, #27

Rated 4.25 Stars

Well here I am back into my soap opera.  I took some time off from this series because some of the characters were getting tedious and predictable but lately there has been some posts in the Yahoo Group for the Moreland Dynasty and I got sucked back in.

I jumped back in 11 books down the line from where I left off and at this time I have not intention of trying to go back of read them all to catch up.  I am fine with where I picked back up. There is really no other way to describe this series other than an ongoing historical soap opera.

PRODUCT PDESCRIPTION:

England still conducts herself with Edwardian confidence; but beneath the surface cracks are breaking society apart. Socialism, strikes and riots, social unrest, and then the disasters of the Titanic and Captain Scott shake the ordered world. Among the Morlands, Jessie and Violet struggle to adapt to the demands of married life; Jack, unlucky in love, designs aeroplanes and trains pilots for the new Royal Flying Corps; and Anne, as the struggle for the Vote becomes more violent, takes comfort in the friendship of an unusual young woman. Meanwhile, the war no-one wants comes ever closer